


The Guild's Best Worrier

by Hannigrammatic



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Light Angst, M/M, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-14
Updated: 2016-05-14
Packaged: 2018-06-08 07:27:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6844867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hannigrammatic/pseuds/Hannigrammatic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will and Hannibal deal with a minor misunderstanding.</p>
<p>Sequel to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/5348591">The Guild's Best Healer</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Guild's Best Worrier

**Author's Note:**

> More Gamer AU :D

[ **TheRipper** has logged on]

Will felt his heart soar briefly before he reminded himself not to be too excited. Hannibal hadn’t logged on in well over a week, not to mention he hadn’t responded to any texts or Skype messages. Even now, he hadn’t answered on any of the devices that they had previously been communicating on.

“I’m being absolutely ridiculous,” he whispered to himself as he dragged a hand roughly through his unruly hair.

Was he? Will couldn’t be sure. It was almost as if Hannibal were avoiding him…

_**TheBossMan** : Hey bud welcome back_

Will squinted at the screen as Jack, the guild leader of **The Profilers** greeted Hannibal after the man had logged on. There wasn’t an answer for several long moments -enough that Will began to wonder if someone had hacked the man’s account. After another minute or two, though, Hannibal finally answered.

_**TheRipper** : Good evening, Jack._

They were all on a first-name basis for the most part in the guild. Hannibal, generally overtly polite, referred to everyone by their names, or by sir or ma’am. 

_**TheBossMan** : You want to join me and Bella in a heroic dungeon run?_   
_**TheRipper** : I’m afraid I have a prior engagement to see to. I apologize._   
_**TheBossMan** : No prob man_

Will frowned and continued on his exploration in a zone he hadn’t mapped completely ingame, directing his character on-screen to mount onto a dragon and to fly in order to make things go by faster. He attempted not to pay attention to the ball of hurt causing his stomach to gurgle unpleasantly, but it was starting to become difficult: eventually he sighed loudly and logged out of the game entirely to lean in his chair and stare at the ceiling accusingly.

“Guh. Will, you’re more mature than this,” he chided himself.

He growled, removed and tossed his headset onto the desk, and stood out of his computer chair to pace instead. Why would Hannibal ignore him? What had he done? As far as Will could tell, the last time they had spoken had been no different, in fact he clearly remembered camming with Hannibal and showing the eloquent man his collection of dog figurines. Had _that_ offended his well-spoken friend?

“UGH!” he stomped out of the room with his hands clenched tightly at his sides.

Noon had come and gone, however it wasn’t late enough for dinner, so Will shrugged into a jacket and then left his home. The air had a chill to it. As he walked down the street to his favorite cafe, his mind continued to race.

“I’m just being _silly_ ,” he scolded himself again and again.

“You’re always silly, Will!” a happy voice interrupted him.

Will blinked and then laughed in embarrassment, looking up at the cashier in the cafe. He’d somehow made it there, waited in line, and stumbled up to the counter without realizing it, so involved had he been with his thoughts and grumbles. Abigail’s smile assuaged some of his anxiety, her white teeth bared in a genuine smile at the sight of him. She rang in his order without needing to ask him, and he handed her a few crumpled bills.

“Long day?” she inquired politely.

Her stunning blue eyes glittered at him, and Will couldn’t stop himself from returning her dimple-cheeked smile. Abigail Hobbs had worked at the cafe since he had moved into the neighborhood. She was a few years his junior, and he found he enjoyed chatting with her at the counter quite often. Unfortunately her father was very protective of her, so the age gap between them was just shy of too much for them to hang out in a more casual environment. Either way, Will was happy to smile and crack a lame joke so that he could at least attempt to distract himself more properly.

“Oh you know me, hard at work playing video games,” he said with a smirk.

They shared a laugh as Abigail’s coworker made him his coffee. Will accepted the warm cup when it was set on the counter for him by a girl that looked to be Abigail’s age with a nametag that read _Marissa_. He smiled briefly at her, and then flipped open the tab on his coffee to take a grateful sip.

“Catch ya later,” he said.

Abigail waved as he left the cafe and took his time walking back home. By the time he unlocked his door, he didn’t feel as heavy with worry, and so when he sat in his computer chair once more, he very bravely pulled up Skype to peek at it and definitely not to see if Hannibal had messaged him. Before he could click onto the conversations tab, however, a box popped up to notify him that Hannibal was _calling_ him.

“Shoot, shoot, shoot,” he panicked, and in his rush to wrestle the headset on he managed to nearly spill his coffee everywhere, catching it just in the nick of time. “Fuck!”

Skype automatically hung up the call before he could click answer, and Will cursed again. He felt like an utter dick, and then even worse once he pulled up Hannibal’s chat window to see that he had missed ten messages and four calls while he had been away. Grumbling and feeling like a piece of shit, he grabbed his mouse and hovered the cursor over Hannibal’s name and called him before he could chicken out.

“Hello,” Hannibal picked up immediately, and his camera turned on by default.

Which meant that Will’s did too, as he had gotten into the habit of doing.

The handsome man stared into the camera with an expression that Will couldn’t determine. Hannibal generally didn’t express much in general, at least not very visibly. It had taken Will a week or more of consecutive camming to realize that his friend was a master at hiding how any given thing affected him unless he wanted it to be seen -and to realize that his gorgeous eyes were the key to figuring him out. Unlike Will, who turned red at the turn of a coin or who went clammy with nervousness at the beginning of every Skype call.

Including now. 

“Uhm,” Will floundered. “Hi, I was getting coffee.”

He held up the steaming cup as evidence. It gave him the excuse to not fidget or straight up hide his face in his hands.

“Good afternoon, Will,” the man answered -and his voice sounded polite (too polite, the young man observed with an inward wince.)

Nothing followed: no inquiring questions about his day or the taste of his coffee, nor about Abigail whom Will had mentioned once before. Just a dark stare into the camera as Will held his coffee up for an increasingly long amount of time.

“Is everything okay?” he stuttered the question.

“Perhaps you ought to tell me that,” Hannibal spoke evenly and didn’t even seem to blink.

Will slowly set the coffee back onto the desk and wiped at a few drops that had spilled onto the cluttered piece of furniture. Next, he scratched at a scuff on his keyboard, eyes downturned and avoiding those on the screen. Finally, he opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

“I should go,” he blurted instead. 

“ _No_.”

The cursor lingered over the red hang-up button when Hannibal shouted the word, his voice raised loudly and reaching a tone that Will couldn’t imagine himself ever disobeying. His eyes widened comically as he stared into the webcam at the actual expression clouding his friend’s features.

Hannibal looked nearly desperate.

“Please don’t,” the man amended, softer. “I apologize for my previous comment. I was merely under the impression that you were ignoring my messages, as you had clearly been online when I logged on.”

“Wha- no. No,no, I really did go get a coffee!” Will fought the urge to flail his hands. “I’m sorry, I just-”

_Thought **you** were ignoring me._

Will sighed loudly and bumped the palm of his hand briefly into the middle of his forehead, looking away once more. He could just shrug it all off, not mention the fact that Hannibal had pretty much disappeared. Unfortunately Will had never been very adept at navigating the intricacies of socializing, so he looked at Hannibal on the monitor and sniffed once, hands falling away to tangle in his lap.

“You stopped responding to me for a week,” he said. “And when you logged onto the game and talked in guild chat, I just got-- I don’t know. I’m stupid.”

There, the truth. Mostly.

Hannibal’s face softened, pale brows twitching upwards and mouth opening once to permit his tongue to swipe over it quickly as he wetted his lips. Familiar eyes didn’t once stir from observing Will in Skype. Finally, Hannibal let out his own sigh.

“There was an incident,” the man said. “I had to relocate quite suddenly. I was too busy to log on, and I’m afraid I’ve managed to lose my phone.”

“Oh,” Will blinked, shut his mouth with a click, and then tilted his head. “Are you… okay?”

The man on his screen cleared his throat and then offered a smile in the brief twitching of one corner of his lips. Will felt his stomach loosen from its knot of worry, replaced with a tentative bud of hope. Maybe Hannibal really hadn’t been ignoring him -he was really far too polite to lie, or at least seemed to be. 

“I am fine,” Hannibal said. “Thank you for inquiring, Will.”

“You’re welcome,” blue eyes shifted to Hannibal’s surroundings in sudden clarity. “You really are in a new place.”

“I am indeed. Did you think I would lie to you?”

Voice gone stern, Hannibal’s face hardened once more, and Will fumbled to rectify his mistake.

“No!” he very nearly shouted. “I just- I worry a lot. I was worried about you.”

_I missed you_.

Hannibal smiled softly and ducked his head in such a _genuine_ gesture of mollification that Will nearly spluttered. He was used to his friend’s handsome face and strong countenance, his rock-solid appearance that had initially taken a bit of time to get used to. Now, though, he looked so fucking cute that Will’s anxiety over the entire situation splintered and fell apart.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” he said gently.

“Thank you, Will,” Hannibal said once more.

They both logged onto the game once more, chattering at a more familiar pace, and about topics that were less emotionally straining. As Will challenged Hannibal’s character online to a duel, he couldn’t help but feel his heart soaring once more, the pace beating in tandem to his foot as it _tip-tapped_ rapidly on the floor, his body a bundle of nerves as it always was when he got to spend time with his friend on Skype. He flicked his eyes away from the duel for a split second and found Hannibal’s gaze fixated on where he knew his own face was on the man’s screen during gameplay, and the amount of happiness that jolted through his chest nearly had Will breathless with wonder.

Then he lost the duel, of course, distracted as he had been.

“Whoah,” Will mock-yelled. “Oh hell no! One more time, Hanni!”

(He lost again not too long after, but it was okay.)


End file.
